While looking at countless timber frame home plans, it became apparent that I may be the only surviving fan of ‘center hall’ floor plans; my choice as the most under appreciated feature of single family home design.

Lets get the whole ‘open plan’ cheerleading thing out of the way….I get the arguments: sense of spaciousness…..’free-flowing’…the way we live today….traffic patterns….Did I miss any?

Sorry, but when a family’s 17 year old slacker son stumbles in smelling like a locker room with faint over-tones of stale beer, grandma and her bridge club should not be assaulted by his arrival. He should be able to let himself in, raid the fridge and head up to his room with no one at the card table having a stroke at the sight of Junior’s obscene t-shirt. Family, guests, the guy in witness protection who rents the spare bedroom, everyone should be able to move around the house without having to walk right through the living room / dining room / kitchen and past other people who really don’t want any social interaction; they just want some Hagen Dazs and a chance to get back to their room without any conflict.

I occasionally come across a seven thousand square foot ‘family homes’ with a center hall design, but there is no reason this layout should be restricted to over-sized behemoths. A well executed center hall plan offers even more benefits when utilized in a moderate sized ( 1,800 sf +/-) home where privacy can’t be gained by escaping to the north wing.

My childhood years living with my family were split between a very early (1951) split level and a typical center hall ‘colonial’. Comparing the pure functionality of the two structures makes the advantages of the center hall design just so obvious. Do people prefer no hallways because they haven’t experienced a good quality center hall design, or am I missing out on some horrible problems with center hall plans that makes life miserable for some people?

You know what's great about 'custom' design? It's custom.

Throw out the TF glossy porno mags. They aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Pick up some books on small house design - or better yet - assemble sketches, measurements, maybe even photos of places you've been that you like. Stitch these together in a rough floor plan. Start imagining a frame in the space as the structure. Shake. Stir. Adjust. Repeat as necessary.

I'm a fan of the 'hall' style as well - but more so in a mudroom flows into kitchen flows into stair and beyond kind of space than in a traditional hall and parlor space.

And I like 'not so great' rooms and 'just OK' rooms. And there is no way any place in my home will be dedicated to the consumption of entertainment and brain washing of my kid and the dog by the talking heads piped in thru the tube. Space is too precious and life too short.

Shouldn't the generations mingle? People and buildings.

Tim